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Following is the question by the Hon Chan Yuen-han and a written reply by the Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Stephen Ip, in the Legislative Council today (November 9):
Question:
Regarding the efforts to curb the reception of inbound tours by people without the local Tourist Guide Pass ("the Pass"), including tour escorts accompanying tour groups to Hong Kong, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the legislation under which the departments concerned are empowered to check the documents of persons serving as tour guides and prosecute those without the Pass;
(b) of the number of law enforcement actions taken by the departments concerned over the past two years; and the respective numbers of persons arrested and prosecuted for serving as tour guides without the Pass; as well as the number of warnings issued by the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong to travel agents employing tour guides without the Pass;
(c) whether it will consider enacting legislation to require travel agents to employ local tour guides with the Pass for the reception of inbound tours; if it will not, of the reasons for that; and
(d) whether it will consider assigning to one single department the work of issuing the Pass, regulating tour guides' work and taking law enforcement actions, so as to safeguard the quality of the service of tour guides?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong (TIC) introduced in September 2002 the Tourist Guides Accreditation Scheme (the Scheme) which provides for the training, accreditation and issuance of ¡§Tourist Guide Pass¡¨ (the Pass) for tourist guides. The TIC also issued directives on the Scheme, requiring travel agents to assign tourist guides with a valid Pass to receive inbound visitors from 1 July 2004 onwards; and anyone working as a tourist guide must have the Pass. The TIC, being the self-regulatory body of the travel trade, conducts spot checks according to the directives at places frequented by inbound tour groups to check if the tourist guides concerned are holding valid Passes.
Travel agents that are suspected to have violated the directives will be investigated by the Compliance Committee of the TIC, and disciplinary action will be taken against the travel agents concerned in accordance with TIC¡¦s directives and Memorandum and Articles of Association. This may include warning and a fine. For repeated offenders, the TIC may suspend or revoke the membership of the travel agent concerned, which may lead to the suspension or revocation of the travel agent licence issued by the Registrar of Travel Agents. Cases involving tourist guides who are suspected to have violated the relevant directives will be handled by the Tourist Guide Deliberation Committee under the TIC. The Committee will decide on the disciplinary actions having regard to the seriousness of each case. The TIC will refer cases involving fraud to the enforcement agencies for follow-up action.
According to section 41 of the Immigration Ordinance and section 2 of the Immigration Regulations, a visitor shall not take any employment, whether paid or unpaid; and any non-Hong Kong resident, who is not allowed to work in Hong Kong but is found working as a tourist guide (illegal tourist guide), has breached the condition of stay and is subject to prosecution. The Immigration Department may, in accordance with the Ordinance, examine a person at any time if there is reasonable cause to believe that such person is contravening or has contravened the condition of stay, and detain such person for inquiry purpose. Any person who has contravened a condition of stay shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for two years.
According to section 17I of the Immigration Ordinance, if a travel agent is found to have employed a person who is not permitted to work in Hong Kong as a tourist guide, the travel agent commits an offence of employing a person who is not lawfully employable and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of $350,000 and imprisonment for three years.
(b) As the Tourist Guides Accreditation Scheme is a new scheme, the TIC has adopted a phased approach in its implementation.
At the early stage of the implementation of the Scheme, the TIC recognised that both the travel agents and tourist guides had not fully adapted to the new arrangement, and that the number of tourist guides who obtained the Pass in the first six months was only about 3,430, which could not fully meet market demand. During the period, while the TIC conducted spot checks from time to time, it mainly reminded and advised the travel agents who had breached the directives to take immediate actions to comply with the requirements.
In February 2005, the TIC announced that it would step up enforcement action with effect from 1 March 2005. During the eight months between March and October 2005, the TIC conducted a total of 28 spot checks, covering a total of 215 inbound tour groups. According to the TIC, 26 tourist guides were found, during the spot checks, to have no valid Passes, but no illegal tourist guides were found. All the tourist guides without the Pass are Hong Kong residents. Most of the cases had been processed by TIC. Among them, five travel agents (involving six tourist guides) were fined by the TIC for employing Hong Kong residents without a valid Pass to undertake the duties of tourist guides; another 13 travel agents (involving 14 tourist guides) were warned by the TIC because the tourist guides they employed had only completed the required training but not the accreditation process. The remaining six cases are being processed by the TIC.
To further deter tourist guides without valid Passes and illegal tourist guides, Government departments, including the Travel Agents Registry, the Immigration Department and Hong Kong Police Force, together with the TIC conducted four joint operations in August and September 2005. During the operations, 122 inbound tour groups were checked. There were five tourist guides (all of them Hong Kong residents) without a valid Pass; they have already completed the required training but not the accreditation procedures. The cases were referred to the TIC for follow up.
The Government has not arrested or prosecuted any person as no illegal tourist guides were found in the spot checks and joint operations.
(c) & (d) The current regulatory system for travel agents was established in 1988. It is a two-tier system whereby the licensing of travel agents is administered by the Travel Agents Registry of the HKSAR Government and the regulation of the day-to-day operation of travel agents is conducted by the TIC.
The existing regulatory system has also served its regulatory functions effectively in ensuring the quality of inbound tour groups and in enhancing the professional status of the tourist guide trade. Since the implementation of the Tourist Guides Accreditation Scheme from July 1, 2004, the TIC has been operating the Scheme smoothly with the support of the Government. In respect of training, accreditation and issuance of the Pass, some 9,000 serving tourist guides have been trained under the subsidy of the Government's Skills Upgrading Scheme. Among them, some 5,650 had completed the accreditation process and were granted the Pass. The Government will continue to provide subsidy through the Skills Upgrading Scheme so that the TIC can continue to provide training for those who wish to join the profession. Regarding enforcement, the TIC has sufficient experience as well as clear directives and an appeal mechanism for ensuring the effective implementation of the Scheme. Concerned Government departments will also continue to render support to the TIC in its enforcement of the Scheme, where necessary.
Allowing the TIC to implement the Tourist Guides Accreditation Scheme in the form of self-regulation under the two-tier regulatory system is effective, in line with the policy of self-regulation by the trade and can ensure the quality of inbound tour groups and the tourist guides profession. We believe that it is not necessary for the Government to regulate tourist guides or to do so through legislation.
As to the problem of illegal tourist guides, its nature is similar to that of illegal workers being employed in other professions or industries. It should continue to be handled by the Immigration Department according to the Immigration Ordinance.
Ends/Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Issued at HKT 12:43
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